Auckland and Catch up with Marian and Chris Cornwell

Following the weather over the last 24 hours with winds and squall and heavy rainfall we were delighted to wake to see the ship arrive in the beautiful city of Auckland.

Yes we are very excited. . Following a good breakfast we prepare ourselves to leave the ship at 9.45 am to meet our good friends (, Marian and Chris Cornwell) and are hoping for an enjoyable day in this beautiful city with its stunning harbour.

It is several years since our last visit and we immediately notice the number of new modern buildings around the terminal precinct.

No sooned had we come through the terminal than we see Marian and she and Jeanette embrace and then Chris comes through and we shgake hands and it is great to see them.

They have been able to park in the forecourt area. We then drive to a local Yacht Club where we sit outside and enjoy a coffee and chat for an hour and look at photos of the grandchildren and children.

Then we drive around the Harbour and take in some beautiful areas. Following this, we go to their home, where we have a celebratory glass of Rose. It is a lovely comfortable property in a superb location.

Marian has prepared a lunch of Quiche type pie and Salad which is delightful. It is wonderful to catch up and recall the last 4-5 years particularly the pandemic and their experiences are very much similar to ours. We talk incessantly, it is just great.

We depart their home for the Cruise Terminal at about 1.50 pm and say our goodbyes, knowing that we will again get together when they visit Melbourne in some 4 weeks.

It has been a special day. The Grand Princess departs at 3.00 pm to a blaze of horns and noise and we stay out on our balcony and watch the sail away then the pilot transfer some 15 minutes out. Then we sail along the coast for about 45 minutes before heading toward the west for the 2 days of sailing back to Melbourne.

Time for a quick shower and change after just a terrific day. We love the city and it is beautiful in every respect.

We then go to have a drink in the Wheelhouse Bar and then walk next door to the specialty restaurant named Sabatini’s where we enjoy a special meal of 4 courses of a wonderful Italian meal and superb service Ken celebrated her birthday with superb Cab Sav.

After we have almost finished our dinner the Waiters and Staff come to sing happy birthday with a cake. Just special for Jeanette. We are very blessed to be able to cruise and enjoy our holidays together.

We then go to the show, which is very good, and then change and complete packing to have our cases outside our suite by 10.00 pm on the last night at Sea.

In many respects, the trip has passed too quickly, but we have enjoyed this chance to revisit New Zealand a beautiful country with lovely people, very similar to Australians in many characteristics.

Princess has delivered a very good product however we also note that there are charges for a whole raft of things that were previously free.

Many regular Princess Cruisers were highly critical.

In addition, the new normal represents the use of the Princess Medallion technology and which we found to be positive. We found the menus somewhat different with some staples now only reflected in the Crown Grill Steakhouse.

Like many other regular cruisers, we were disappointed by the numbing experience of removal of many of the little things and then a conscious policy to charge expeditiously for a whole range of traditionally free items. We sense the brand will face challenges.

The food, entertainment, and range of services were excellent. The ship is an older vessel but still provides quality “Princess “ cruising and travel. The staff was friendly, caring and generally very well trained. The new normal is different with obviously some staff new. The use of the room steward to cover and only cleaning/servicing the room on one occasion per day was not a welcome development but reflected the issues of having something like 100 Covid-19 cases on board.

We will comment further as we progress the commentary of the next 2 sea days as well as the arrival back in Melbourne and then our disembarkation.